Gaps and mismatches present in joints between adjacent components or workpieces to be joined by welding present challenges impacting manual and automated welding processes. With manual welding, a welder can change the welding parameters intuitively resulting in a good weld. Automated welding does not have the flexibility of manual welding. To achieve good welds in automated welding adaptive control with assistance from a seam tracker is used. Adaptive control is oftentimes difficult and cumbersome to implement. Adaptive control adjusts welding parameter settings in real time during the welding process based on the joint gap inspection. The methods currently employed in automated welding include cumbersome programs and cameras.
Variable gaps of more than 1.5 millimeters in joints of adjacent workpieces are difficult to bridge using automated welding systems. Using adaptive control to slow down the welding speeds and increase the filler metal delivery rates does not provide adequate gap bridging. Trying to use conventional welding techniques to fill larger gaps results in unstable weld pools which can result in blow through holes, lack of penetration, underfill, or lack of fusion between the workpieces or components that are being joined.
It is challenging to guarantee weld quality of welds made in joints in adjacent workpieces having variable gaps using traditional adaptive control welding processes. Examples of challenges include undercut and underfill of welds or partial or incomplete penetration welds, all of which are unacceptable.
Therefore, an adaptive control hybrid welding system and methods of controlling the adaptive control hybrid welding system that do not suffer from the above drawbacks are desirable in the art.